A Ukrainian military transport plane was shot down on Saturday n the eastern city of Luhansk, killing all 49 military personnel on board.

A Ukrainian military transport plane was shot down on Saturday n the eastern city of Luhansk, killing all 49 military personnel on board.

The separatists downed the plane with an anti-aircraft missile as it came in to land, Reuters news agency reported.

The toll is the highest suffered by government forces in a single incident since they launched a military operation to halt the separatism in east Ukraine against the country's pro-European leaders in Kiev.

"The terrorists cynically and treacherously fired with a large-caliber machinegun hitting an Ilyushin-76 of the Ukrainian air force which was carrying troops on rotation and was about to land at Lugansk airport," the Defense ministry said in a statement.

A spokesman for Ukraine's self-proclaimed "anti-terrorist operation" said the plane was carrying nine crew members and 40 paratroopers.

"They all died," spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov told AFP by telephone.
The four-engine jet was also carrying military equipment.